1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle rental system by which a vehicle is rented to a specified user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous vehicle rental systems for rental of bicycles or other vehicles exist in accordance with prior techniques. For example, for an automobile rental system, the general practice is one in which a customer fills out necessary provisions onto documents at the rental company and receives a key, and after rental and use of a desired automobile for a predetermined time period, the vehicle is returned to the rental company. In this case, the handling of receipt and delivery of the rental contract and key, and accounting calculations necessary upon return of the vehicle, result in considerable complexity for the customer and rental company employees alike.
Thus, for example, in a system disclosed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 6-68095, a distinguishing means, such as a magnetic card which is in the possession of a member, is read by an evaluating means installed in the automobile, thereby judging whether use of the vehicle is valid or not, and if such use is possible, the door is unlocked and rental of the vehicle is permitted. On the other hand, the position of the concerned vehicle can be tracked by a central control apparatus via an automobile position discernment device. In this case, simplification of the rental procedure can be achieved, and since the position of the vehicle can be discerned, an advantage is attained in that the degree of freedom in returning the vehicle can be improved.
Further, in a system disclosed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 7-325959, in a rental station in which plural portable telephones are received, a card possessed by the user is employed, and a desired portable telephone is rented, wherein the rental fee therefor is calculated based on a summed value of use units which is internally stored within the portable telephone.
However, according to such conventional techniques, a structure is not provided in which a certain type, or the like, of vehicle or portable phone, selectable by the user, can be easily and conveniently chosen.
On the other hand, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 2-93796, an apparatus is disclosed enabling a battery owned by a user to be electrically charged for a fee.
However, there is no discussion concerning key management. More specifically, as for a key which is rented together with the vehicle, in order to access the rented state of the vehicle, or for theft prevention, it is necessary to provide some management scheme therefore. For example, if a customer returns a key which is different from that which was rented out, subsequent customers cannot rent the vehicle belonging to that key. Further, there is a fear that the car in question could be used illegitimately, by intentionally returning a different key.
As one type of key management system, for example as disclosed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 6-26249, a detection device is disposed in the vicinity of a key box containing a plurality of vehicle keys, for determining the usage conditions of the vehicle by specification of the key, together with whether the correct key exists or not. Further, by disposing a card reader, for reading data on a specialized card kept by the user, management of both the vehicle and the user is performed.
However, even with this conventional technique, although the returned key can be specified by the detection device, it cannot be confirmed to the extent that the key is the very key which was rented out with respect to a given customer.
Further, as a hotel reservation system, a user's reservation is received, wherein the user's phone number or the like is registered as a code, and at the time of check-in, according to the code, a room card key is issued, and at check-out, by use of the returned card key, settling of accounts is conducted. (See, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 8-202776.)
However, with this system, it is difficult for the user to freely select a room of choice, the rental procedures are troublesome, and furthermore, because the scope of such a rental is unrestricted, an unsuitability is indicated in which problems arise from the standpoint of security concerns.
On the other hand, in a vehicle rental system, it is necessary to prepare a plurality of vehicles within a parking area. For example, at a parking lot near to a train station, a plurality of bicycles are parked, and typically by means of respectively equipped stands (i.e. kick stands), each bicycle is self-supported.
At such a parking area, because plural bicycles are to be parked within the smallest possible space, the interval between adjacent bicycles becomes considerably narrowed. In this case, when the stand is on one side only, because the parked bicycles tend to slant, there is not only a fear of toppling over, but as the interval between adjacent bicycles becomes even narrower, unsuitability arises in that insertion and removal of bicycles becomes inconvenient.
Thus, a parking area is known in which a guide rail is arranged within the parking lot, wherein either the front or rear wheel can be connected to the guide rail. In this case, it is possible that even bicycles without stands may be parked. However, because the width of the guide rail ordinarily cannot be set so as to accommodate all types of vehicles, in the case of a road racer type bicycles having narrow-width wheels, the vehicle body tends to slant, again hindering insertion and removal of adjacent bicycles.
As a parking device in which this type of problem does not occur, there is known Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 8-104268, This parking apparatus, as shown in FIG. 24, is constructed by front wheel supporting walls 3 which grip both sides of a lower part of the front wheel 2 of a bicycle 1, and a front wheel locking device 5 connected to the front wheel supporting walls through a pipe arm 4, for gripping a frontal edge of the wheel 2.
With a parking device constructed in this manner, because the front wheel 2 of the bicycle 1 is gripped by both the front wheel supporting walls 3 and the wheel locking device 5, irrespective of whether or not there is a stand, the bicycle 1 does not lean over, and accordingly an inconvenience in relation to insertion and removal of bicycles, caused by leaning, does not arise.
However, as shown by FIG. 25, when a plurality of bicycles are arranged side-by-side, the handle 6b of bicycle 1b, and the handle 6a of adjacent bicycle 1a or the handle 6c of bicycle 1c, interfere with each other, hindering the locking and unlocking operations of the front wheel locking device 5 of bicycle 1b. The problem is especially conspicuous in the event that the bicycle 1b is smaller in scale than the adjacent bicycles 1a and 1c.